Before watching: So I heard this was a spiritual successor to Strike Witches. When it's done airing I'm going to see if this is true.
After watching: That's a whole lotta action, fanservice, and cute-girls-doing-cute-things interactions with each other! Can definitely see how they can call it that, with much the same kind of plot, battles (though this time with a straight-up magical girls feel, despite being pure sci-fi), and ambiance 'n' aesthetics.
This is certainly one of the best-looking animes I've ever seen, though probably because I've never watched one so new before.
The whole "power of friendship" thing is lame and simplistic, but it works well here. The final battle and big bad were quite brutal, though! Color me impressed.
And now for comparisons. This does seem more mindless; e.g., in SW, girls wear panties by themselves because it's natural for everyone to emulate war heroes (just like American men, after the World Wars, shaving their beards to look like soldiers, even though they only needed to to wear gas masks) like the Witches who can't wear bulky pants because that'd interfere with equipping their Striker Units; whereas here, girls apparently wear 80's-style short-shorts "jus' cuz". Or to put on an alternate spin: VO is openly honest about their fanservice. Heh heh heh.
But likewise, Witches trained hard for battle, while the ladies here go from schoolgirls to suddenly kicking ass and taking names for no reason, not even "A wizard scientist did it" -- though the occasional mid-air pop-up holographic displays (reminds me of Dead Space, neat!) explains how they know how their new equipment works. Among a dozen other little things that make this feel more like a shallow [i]Akshun![/i] piece.
Ah well, guess it's not a big deal, 'tis what it is and still quite enjoyable; just a point in favor of SW, that's all. Not to imply that SW is "deep" in any way, mind you... but VO certainly took their on-the-surface qualities and ran hog-wild with 'em. Again, not saying that's a bad thing, but it DOES make it feel a bit like they're just playing follow-the-leader. But hey, not like they were ever going to make SW season 3...
On its own, as a magical girls show (but with the magic replaced by future tech approaching but not quite borderline cyberpunk), it's a fairly good but standard action piece starring pretty and likeable -- though for the most part archetypal -- schoolgirls of war, like so many animes. Neither original nor groundbreaking, but as I said above, it works well nevertheless.
...now where have I said all that before? I'm getting major deja vu here!
